In light of the European Court of Human Rights Judgment that the PSNI’s decision to retain Mr Gaughran's personal data indefinitely was a "violation" of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights, can the Chief Constable advise of his assessment of its implications; and when the PSNI will be in a position to publish the policy on the retention of biometric material.
The key finding, of this the latest judgement in the area of biometric retention, was that PSNI (and by extension United Kingdom policing as a whole) was lawfully retaining biometrics as per existing provisions in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), but that the provisions of PACE were in breach of an individual’s right to privacy and family life under Article 8.
The ruling cited a continuing imbalance in the indefinite retention of biometric material taken from persons who have been convicted. The ruling also took issue with the failure to address the need to review continued retention in such cases.
This latest development follows the previous ruling in S & Marper v the UK (2008) which dealt with the imbalance in retaining biometrics indefinitely from persons never convicted. Northern Ireland remains the only part of Europe not compliant with this ruling due to the non-commencement of the Criminal Justice Act (NI) 2013. In the absence of this legislative framework and to provide interim governance arrangements, PSNI established a Biometric Retention/Disposal Ratification Committee in 2015. This committee meets regularly to discuss applications from individuals requesting deletion of their Biometric material.
PSNI remains committed to commencing the full regime contained within that Act on a non-statutory basis. It is currently envisaged that this will fully commence in September 2020 with real time deletions of PACE materials. The associated Policy and guidance on how to apply for early review of Biometric material held will be available on the PSNI website within the next few weeks.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) will now need to work to ensure that Northern Ireland develops legislative provisions capable of balancing the need to keep people safe with protecting individual rights in respect of both Article 2 and Article 8 considerations where persons have been convicted. The Police Service will of course continue to support this critical piece of work and are actively engaged with both partners. PSNI will also seek the views of Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.